


Closing Ranks

by story_telling_sage



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Allison loves Neil very much and he is frustrating, Andrew agrees with Allison which is shocking in it's own right, Mentions of Baltimore, Multi, Polyamory, They're all in love man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 03:31:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13045602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/story_telling_sage/pseuds/story_telling_sage
Summary: In which Neil realizes a few things about love, namely that it's allowed and he's allowed to have it.--Neil had never heard the word love thrown around like that. Quietly, almost carelessly. Neil’s mother had loved him, of that he was sure, but it wasn’t something that was said aloud. The affectionate word never passed either of his parents’ lips. He heard it between Matt and Dan, saw it in the way Coach Wymack looked at his team, felt it when he looked at the Foxhole Court with a racquet in his hands, but never like this.“Yes, Neil, love. It’s not that strange of a word,” Allison quipped when Neil didn’t respond. He must have looked as confused as he felt because her sharp smile softened to something warmer.Neil nodded, confused but maybe he was learning. Maybe he could get used to this. It was a dangerous thought, but maybe it was worth it.





	Closing Ranks

**Author's Note:**

> This is my gift for @some-sort-of-firefly on Tumblr as part of the aftgexchange! They prompted for rarepairs and my brain immedatly fell down the polyamory rabbit hole. It started as Kevin/Allison/Neil but it turned into something of it's own making. I hope you enjoy and happy holidays!
> 
> All characters belong to Nora Sakavic, I'm just borrowing them.

Allison was the first person to begin showing up at night practices, to Kevin’s surprise and Andrew’s unimpressed glare. Neil just smiled.

“What are you doing here?” Kevin asked incredulously, raising his dark eyebrows in a mixture of surprise and disdain.

“We’re facing the Ravens in the finals. I don’t intend to let them win. If that means putting up with your ass, then fine, but let’s get to work.”

Again, Neil didn’t say anything. He knocked his racquet against hers and got back into position, letting Kevin call the drills. Allison, to her credit, didn’t complain once. She scoffed and argued and glared, but she worked, and she worked _hard_.

Neil was surprised, even though he wasn’t quite sure why. Allison had all the opportunities in life most people dreamed of. Money, fame, opportunity, but she had given it up for _this_. For Kevin’s bitching and Neil’s fast footwork. For exy. For a future of her own choosing.

Neil, out of everyone, could understand that. To escape the past, the parents haunting your steps? Neil could understand running just about anywhere. Afterall, he had gone so far as France and beyond to try and outrun his demons. Southern California wasn’t that much of a stretch.

Other team members filled in gradually, the further the season got along, but none of them were as constant as Allison. It shouldn’t have come to a surprise when Neil walked into the locker room when the trio’s practice had come to an end to find Kevin pushed up against one of the lockers, Allison’s lips working his way up his neck as the man under her groaned.

And really, as long as it didn’t affect the _team_.  

When the team met the next morning in the gym, Allison sauntered easily, like all judgments rolled easily off of her. Kevin followed, slightly more shy as the red of a blush colored his skin just about as soon as Nicky started sniggering.

Of course, _he_ was the one to notice the dark bruises of the best sort on the striker’s neck.

“Okay, Aaron and Matt you owe me fifty!” he just about crowed. Renee gave Allison a pleased smile and Dan high-fived her part-time girlfriend.

Everyone had known about Allison and Seth, just like everyone knew about Matt and Dan. When Allison and Seth had been on their breaks, it wasn’t uncommon for Allison to fall into bed with Dan.

Matt wasn’t the jealous type, even if there was nothing between himself and Allison, the two dealers obviously had chemistry together. And after all, polyamory is a thing that exists outside of threesomes.

Now, Kevin had obviously been brought into the mix. Neil didn’t pretend to understand it all, but it seemed to make them happy.

Meanwhile, Neil and Andrew continued to exchange truths on rooftops between cigarette smoke and Neil couldn’t help but wonder if his mother had been wrong. Still, he was going to die and his mother had been wrong about so many things.

In the end, Andrew pushed Neil away and Neil was smart enough not to chase. Neil still fell into easy step with Andrew and Renee during their laps at practice. If sometimes Andrew pushed Neil into the wall and kissed the redhead deeply and desperately, only to walk away, then that was okay too.

Allison kept coming to midnight practices and Neil kept playing like it was his last time on the court. Kevin was as prideful and desperate on the court as always and Allison was just as pushy. Nothing much had changed except this:

One night, when Kevin was busy studying for his history test and Neil sat in his room watching the tapes of the Bearcats in preparation for their next day, Allison bullied her way into his room. She had her own pad of notes and was wearing her favorite pair of designer jeans. She sat down next to Neil like it was her right to be there.

“Which game are you on?” she asked, and without thinking Neil replied.

“Bearcats versus Red Hawks, last year’s deathmatches.” Neil paused, opened his mouth to say something else, and then closed it. If Allison wanted to be here, Neil wouldn’t send her away.

He didn’t like to say it out loud, didn’t like to think it, but sometimes the word _lonely_ filtered through his mind. Allison’s quick commentary and the sound of pen against paper kept that feeling at ease.

It was only after the fifth time Neil had found Allison at his side that he finally asked what he’d been wondering when she had first sat down without explanation.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I didn’t come here to lose,” she said, but there was something more by the way she said it. “And I’m allowed to love you too. I might not buy you clothes like the monster does, but this matters to you.”

Neil had never heard the word love thrown around like that. Quietly, almost carelessly. Neil’s mother had loved him, of that he was sure, but it wasn’t something that was said aloud. The affectionate word never passed either of his parents’ lips. He heard it between Matt and Dan, saw it in the way Coach Wymack looked at his team, felt it when he looked at the Foxhole Court with a racquet in his hands, but never like this.

“Yes, Neil, love. It’s not that strange of a word,” Allison quipped when Neil didn’t respond. He must have looked as confused as he felt because her sharp smile softened to something warmer.

Neil nodded, confused but maybe he was learning. Maybe he could get used to this. It was a dangerous thought, but maybe it was worth it.

“Okay,” he said and pressed play on the tape he had loaded.

* * *

 

Kevin and Allison kept kissing, into each other’s beds and up against lockers. Sometimes Dan showed up before their midnight practices ended to bully Allison and Neil to bed.

(Dan had given up on Kevin a long time ago, but most of the time he grudgingly followed.)

“You and Allison are dating,” Andrew said, during one of their games of truth. Neil blinked and took in a deep breath of smoke.

“She’s dating Kevin,” he replied, twitching an eyebrow in surprise.

“And she was dating Seth, and she’s dating Dan, and I’m fairly sure she and Kevin are just having sex.”

“There’s a difference?” Neil asked. Andrew just shrugged.

“Not my point. People can date more than one person.” Andrew was clearly unimpressed at Neil’s slowness on the uptake. Neil just didn’t understand why Andrew thought she was dating _him_.

“I don’t swing, I told you that.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. _Exy_. But you should know, I don’t share my things.”

“Good thing I’m not a thing then, isn’t it?”

Neil took another deep inhale as the cigarette continued to burn. Andrew continued to stare, dark and dangerous and just bordering on thoughtful.

 _Interesting_ , those eyes said, and Neil didn’t know how to respond.

Allison said she loved him. Andrew kissed him and pushed him away. Neil lived and tried to understand, even if every day was counting down to the end.

“Maybe we’ll make a fox of you yet,” Andrew said after a considerable amount silence and Neil didn’t respond. He just finished his cigarette and left. It was almost time for dinner and he was meeting Allison and some of the other cheerleaders.

Nothing changed, or if it did, it changed slowly enough the Neil didn’t quite notice. Midnight practices were a constant. Allison by his side was becoming more and more common, even outside of watching Exy tapes. Secondhand smoke and conversations about the zombie apocalypse.

Then came the Belmont game. The riot. Baltimore.

Neil knew it was coming, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. That didn’t make Lola’s knives hurt less. At least he got to say goodbye.

“Thank you,” he had gotten to tell his family. “You’re all amazing.” If he was looking mostly at Allison and Andrew as he said it, well, who could blame him. Maybe he didn’t know what love was, but maybe it felt a bit like this.

Neil let himself sink into the memories of his family, of Allison and Kevin at his side, of Andrew and Renee walking together, of Nicky’s smile and Matt’s warm embrace. He thought about Wymack and Abby, and even Bee, and tried to find solace in the fact that they’d be okay.

Neil wouldn’t be. He wouldn’t live until morning. Or at least, so he though. There was Nathan. There were bullets. There was blood. There was victory.

Neil stayed awake long enough to get into the custody of the FBI, but as his vision went dark he kept the mantra he had been thinking the entire night alive: _I love them, I love them, I love them._

* * *

 

Allison had watched Neil walk away. She’d never forgive herself for that. She listened to him say what later she would know he meant to be his last words and she _let him walk away_.

When Neil wasn’t on the bus, when he didn’t come back, she felt something firey rise up inside of her. When she looked at the absolutely crushed look on her boyfriend’s face she knew that they both loved this boy too much for him to be gone.

But he was.

Allison didn’t stop Andrew when he pushed Kevin up against the motel wall. Didn’t stop her hands from shaking because Neil was gone. She did try to stop Renee, for just a moment, when she moved towards Andrew.

Allison wanted answers, goddamnit. She wanted Neil.

There was no love loss between Andrew and Allison but they both loved the same stubborn red head and that was something. It was enough.

Kevin would sport bruises against his throat for days. Neil would sport of the scars from that night for the rest of his life. Allison was left untouched, and for everything in the world that felt so wrong.

They got Neil back, by some miracle. Neil wouldn’t be another Seth, just a pile of ashes and regret no matter how much he had resigned himself to that fate.

Allison and Andrew, by some uneasy truce, closed ranks on the FBI. Allison was already contacting her lawyers. Andrew was already shoring up his defenses. Neil was there. Was alive. They had their Foxes at their back, all the people they loved.

It felt like it had been days later, not just hours, when they were all finally home. Andrew stayed on one side of Neil, Allison took the other side. In the back of the bus, them both watching the exits and their boy, she had to believe this was safety. Andrew and Allison would never like each other. She would always look at him and some part of her brain would whisper _monster_. Andrew would look at her the think  _vapid,_ think  _useless._

But Neil loved them both, and it was enough.

 _I love you,_ Neil said, like he wasn’t breaking his heart over and over again. He didn’t expect Andrew to fight for him. He expected Allison to leave him behind like trash. But they were Foxes. And Neil was theirs.

That night they curled up together, all of them. Andrew was nearest to the door, Allison was nearest to Neil. Matt didn't sleep that entire night, too busy holding Dan and watching Neil breathe. Kevin stayed close to Andrew's side, but Allison held his hand. They were foxes. They were family. 

In the morning Neil woke up, and they were all still there, and he smiled like it didn't pull at the bandages on his face. Allison loved him, and Neil loved her. He loved Andrew and she loved Kevin and Dan. Dan loved Matt and Matt loved Neil and Nicky loved his cousins and they all loved each other in so many different ways.

Neil didn't understand it, not completely, but it made them happy. And that was enough.


End file.
